How to Hide your IP address on Mac: Easy Ways to Protect your Privacy

Why Would You Hide Your Mac’s IP Address?

The motives why Mac users decide to mask their IP addresses vary. In fact, some of them do it to download illegal content. But there are more reasons to mask your real IP.

For example, you may want to bypass geo-restrictions and censorship without getting in trouble. If you hide your IP address, it will look like you are sitting at a different place. Or you may do so to protect your privacy and stay away from annoying advertisers. Whatever your motives are, we have some ready-made solutions for you.

3 Ways to Hide Your Mac’s IP Address

There are actually more than 3 ways to hide your IP address. We’ve limited our guide to 3 approaches as the other ones like using mobile networks or public Wi-Fi are not secure enough.

Out of the methods described below, we recommend using a VPN. In this case, you’ll get both high speed and reliable encryption of your data. The other 2 methods will make you choose between fast and secure. Note that the best VPNs for Mac come at a price but isn’t your privacy worth it?

Use a VPN for Mac

Choosing the right VPN for your Mac is probably the easiest thing to do if you want to mask your real IP address. This technology allows routing your Internet traffic through different servers which are a part of the VPN’s network.

The servers encrypt your data and set a different IP address to it. The new address may be from another continent, so no one will guess where you really are.

With a good VPN provider, you can torrent safely at your regular speeds, unblock geo-restricted platforms like Netflix and BBC iPlayer, and not sweat over the thoughts about the Big Brother watching you. It is your key to unlimited Internet freedom!

Setting up a VPN client on Mac is also easy and quick. Usually, providers offer custom Mac software for users’ convenience.

Use a Proxy

A proxy server is a bit similar to VPN. It is an in-between point between your device and the websites you are visiting. This means that your request does not go to the requested website directly but it “stops” at the proxy and then travels to the final destination. Proxy servers hide your real IP address and assign you with a new one.

Unlike VPNs for Mac, proxy servers don’t cost anything. You can easily find proxy servers with a simple Google search and may connect to any of them.

However, if compared to a VPN, proxy servers are not as convenient. You must remember using them whenever you want to go online, plus they may slow your speeds down significantly. Also, a proxy server would not encrypt your data, so anybody skillful enough can read it. Finally, you cannot use a proxy on mobile apps, just on a web browser.

With all said, a proxy is a simple yet one-time solution to help you mask your IP address and bypass geo-restrictions. But your ISP may track your activities. So do the government’s snoopers. Thus, if you want to get more solid protection of your privacy and more convenient service, choose a VPN instead.

Use Tor

Another tool that will let hide your IP address using The Onion Router, or Tor. Its principle is simple. All the data from your device is sent via many networks of servers around the globe which makes it impossible to track. With Tor, you can open blocked websites. It also encrypts your data. Plus, it is free.

However, Tor is extremely slow, and you will hate streaming or torrenting with it. The reason of such slowness is obvious: it takes time to kick your data from one server to another and later return it to you. But this is how Tor works.

Bottom Line

The necessity to hide your real IP address on your Mac is not a whim anymore. This is more of a question of responsible attitude towards your own privacy and online freedom.

Fortunately, there are many ways to protect your Mac device from spying eyes and get access to the beloved content (for legal purposes we assume). Many of them don’t even cost anything. You may opt to try all of them and then decide what fits your needs better. Stay safe!